The deal marks the first acquisition for Blick Rothenberg, based in London’s Covent Garden. Located in Marylebone, Shelley Stock Hutter was ranked at number 70 in the Accountancy league table of the top 75 firms in 2017, with fee income of £7.2m and seven partners.

Nilesh Shah, CEO at Blick Rothenberg, said: ‘We are delighted to have acquired Shelley Stock Hutter. They have a very good reputation in the market place and in terms of clients and people are a very good fit for us.

‘Shelley Stock Hutter has a strong presence in the OMB market place and has successfully created a UK focused business advising entrepreneurial businesses which will complement the range of services we offer. There are plenty of very good synergies between the two businesses.’

Blick Rothenberg’s turnover for 2016 was £26.2m. The combined firm now has 41 partners and directors, and over 300 staff.

Lynton Stock, senior partner and head of tax at Shelley Stock Hutter, said: ‘This opportunity is the start of an exciting new phase for our practice. At a time when the profession is changing so rapidly, the ability to expand our service offering for clients and benefit from the investment being made by CogitalGroup is perfectly timed.’

CogitalGroup, which is backed by HgCapital, was launched in December 2016 with the aim of building a technology driven, international advisory business capable of challenging the Big Four in the audit market.

The group was formed through the acquisitions and merger of Nordic based Azets (formerly named Visma BPO) and UK based firms Baldwins and Blick Rothenberg. It now serves 58,000 clients with more than 4,000 employees operating from 132 offices in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

In the year to 30 June 2017, proforma revenues were £301m with £91m generated from the UK businesses and £210m in the Nordic markets. Proforma profit before interest, tax and depreciation was £50m.

Report by Pat Sweet